Thursday 17 May 2012

Sword fighting and Diet Update

Today is my Birthday!

This week I weigh 14st 2lbs I have lost a total of 12 lbs. It hasn’t gone down yet this week which I think may be due to not doing any of the damage control tricks on my last binge day. I’ll do inches again next week.

To keep on the pressure this week K8 has joined me on the diet. We have a massive joint binge day planned for Saturday and have taken to writing the things we are going to eat on Saturday on the fridge:


I am using an old Initiative tracker I found at work.

We have also started taking some supplements as recommended in the 4 hour body.

This week I have been harassing some of the best Larp Sword Fighters that I know in an effort to model some of their behaviors.

Some of the best tips I have gleaned from them this week are:

Practice
(should go without saying) a lot of people you will fight do it maybe 4-6 times a year. Practice once a week and you will very quickly find yourself getting better.

Practice with someone at least as good as you if not better. Otherwise it is difficult to improve. Keep looking for other people better than you and then fighting them also.

When you practice don’t just fight for 5 mins, have purpose, set targets, at the very least have hits and track wins and losses. (it is very difficult to get better without a little competition)

Be accurate.
Don’t aim for someone’s arm. Aim for the midpoint of their upper arm, then move your target point to more valuable targets; chest, head, arms etc.

Group your shots together and attack in sets (start with 3’s).

Related Training
Think about taking up a martial art, Kung fu or Jujitsu being two of my suggestions, but anything like that will help improve your fitness and coordination.

Learning
This video has some general tips on learning: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_smash_fear_learn_anything.html
Particularly relevant to learning about sword fighting (or any physical discipline) is the part where he learns to dance. He asks excellent dancers what they do and then watches them dance to see what they do but don’t realise they do. He also pretends to be the Incredible Hulk which just can’t be bad!

With thanks to Little Big Rob, Scott and John.

2 comments:

  1. I'm rubbish at larp fighting mostly because I fear getting hit and only one person I've ever 'trained' with has not flung them selves at me like a windmill, thus not really encouraging me to try more often

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  2. In Kung Fu and Ninjitsu we spent quite a while getting used to being hit or pushed for exactly that reason.

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